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Dutch island of Texel perfect for cyclists, bird-watchers and Canadian war buffs

Ed Eelman, who owns and runs the Piepelcke in Texel, is proud that his inn includes the beams of the tall ship, Revolving Light.

DEN BURG, Netherlands — It’s a comfort to fall asleep on vacation knowing you’re protected by a little bit of home. Or in the case of the classic Dutch farmhouse I was staying in, they were huge pieces of home.

The vacation home called Piepelcke is built from the stout beams of a Canadian tall ship which crashed on the shores of Texel, the largest of the Walden Islands, more than 100 years ago.

The Revolving Light, crafted from the tall pines of New Brunswick at Turner shipyard in 1875, came apart in a savage storm in 1902. The wreckage was salvaged and the stout beams carted inland, where Jacob Eelman bought them to build the home.

The big beams of the three-masted barque have withstood bug infestations that plagued other homes and weathered hundreds of storms off the North Sea.

Jacob’s grandson, Ed Eelman, converted the building into vacation apartments as a retirement project. Tourists use them as a base for biking, birding, beach or sailing holidays on the bucolic island, which is a short ferry ride from the Dutch mainland and about 90 minutes by car from Amsterdam.

Eelman, a worldly birder himself, leads groups along dikes, over dunes and across boot-sucking mud on the coastal flats to identify and photograph birds such as the Brent goose, the spoonbill, widgeon, eider and oystercatcher.

The island has its own national park and is part of the UNESCO Walden Sea Heritage Site, a swathe of coastal area that includes parts of Germany and boasts about 10 million migratory birds annually, some from Canada and Siberia.

There’s also 30 kilometres of beaches, many backed by soaring sand dunes, and the island has 130 kilometres of bike trails.

The trails skirt farm fields and marshes and run through woodlots and along the dikes and dunes which keep the North Sea from overrunning the land. It’s not unusual to negotiate through a flock of Texel sheep as you pedal through pastures.

There is a large bike-rental depot right at the ferry terminal for folks who want to take the train from Amsterdam and ferry to the island.

Texel’s connection to Canada was firmed up six years ago when Eelman took a piece of the Revolving Light to the inauguration of the Shipyard Heritage Park in Harvey, N.B., where the vessel was built.

He had searched for years to find a contact in Canada to flesh out the ship’s history, finally finding a reference in The Hamilton Spectator in 2002 which led him to Mary Majka, an environmentalist and Order of Canada recipient who was campaigning for the heritage park.

Says Eelman: “To know that the timbers of our farmhouse were grown in Canada, cut to size and fitted in a ship which plowed the oceans for 27 years, and then to be connected to a lady who saved the remnants of the wharf where the vessel took shape, that is special.”

Their connection, in turn, spawned a segment of the CBC-TV documentary show Land & Sea.

Another Canadian aspect on Texel is the Luchtvaart en Oorlogsmuseum, a war and aviation museum which has several exhibits honouring Canadian airmen who died on the island in Second World War.

Museum secretary Bram van Dijk has made it his personal mission to contact the families of 167 Allied airmen who died on or near Texel, 15 of them Canadian.

Texel lies close to bombing routes Allied bombers took from England to the north of Germany and the pilots of many crippled aircraft ditched in the sea or tried beach landings, often disastrously, as they limped towards home.

A newspaper story about van Dijk’s quest last Remembrance Day helped find family members of three more Canadians, leaving him two remaining. They are Raymond Norman McCleery of Ottawa and E.H. Kingsland, hometown unknown.

Tribute is also paid to the Canadians in a special war cemetery in the island’s main town, Den Burg, which features a digital book of remembrance based on van Dijk’s research.

The 73-year-old retired fisherman said his reward is the “appreciation the relatives of the dead airmen show. They often know their uncle or cousin died in Holland, they just don’t know where. They are so happy that we honour their relatives here.”

John Kernaghan is a freelance writer based in Oakville, Ont. He was the guest of the Netherlands Board of Tourism.

IF YOU GO

ARRIVING: It is about 90 minutes by car from Amsterdam to Den Helder, where the Teso ferry runs on the hour to Texel, a 20-minute voyage. By train, it is 75 minutes from Amsterdam. Trains leave every half-hour during the day and cost about $20 economy, $32 comfort class. Bicycles rentals cost as little as $8 a day and there are electric bike and scooter rentals on the island, too.

STAYING: Piepelcke is one of many guest houses or apartments, the most popular accommodation on the island. It has two apartments which sleep six each and includes full kitchen. Rates are about $950 per week in high season, $665 in the spring and fall. Hotel rates range from $77 for two with breakfast per night at the Hotel de Kievit to the Hotel Het Uilenbos, which starts at $206 in high season for two with breakfast.

LEARNING: Kaap Skil, a maritime and beachcomber’s museum, showcases classic mariner skills like rope-making, an eclectic variety of objects which have washed up on Texel shores and a large model depicting how, in the age of sail, Dutch ships once lined up off the island to catch favourable winds. Ecomare is the oldest seal sanctuary in Europe and offers other sea life exhibits and explains how nature shaped the island.

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